Fort River Elementary School does have extensive outdoor recreation facilities to lose
One of the more interesting things to come out of the public firefight at the Amherst School Committee meeting last night was the leaking of information regarding other building projects that do not seem to get any attention at all: DPW and South Fire Station new buildings.
Vince O'Connor hatched a conspiracy plot about town officials wishing to abandon Fort River Elementary School in favor of a Wildwood mega-school, which is really twin schools under one roof, so it would then free up Fort River for the new DPW building.
DPW has outgrown its 100 year old building
And moving the DPW from it's current home in one of the classier neighborhoods in Amherst would then free up that location for the new South Fire Station, which has to be located within one mile of Amherst town center in order to abandon tired, old, cramped Central Station.
Which could then be sold to the highest bidder to create a trendy mixed use business/residential building in the heart of downtown.
Central Station could be razed for a new five story mixed use building (especially if a Parking Garage is built out back)
Thus we get three new municipal buildings -- School, Fire and DPW -- with no land acquisition costs.
Unsurprisingly the Amherst School Committee after two hours of public hearing -- more than half of it criticism from the general public -- voted 4-1 in favor of the administration's preferred "Grade Reconfiguration 2-6" model that will create a 750 student two-wing school and turn Crocker Farm Elementary School into a pre K-1st Grade early childhood education superstore.
Interestingly this 'separate but equal' concept of twin schools under one roof is the result of concerns over equity for students of color, low-income and single-parent families (and combinations thereof) that make up a sizable percentage of the Amherst public school population.
Crowd of 40 attended, many of them critical of mega-school
The only School Committee member who had not telegraphed her vote last week was Kathleen Traphaghan. In her presentation she extensively cited her 14-year-old son as a main source for information for this epic decision, which is sort of like a smoking enthusiast justifying their bad habit by citing their grandfather who smoked two-packs a day since teen years and lived to be 93.
Traphagen also criticized the local hometown newspaper for pre-coverage of this "agonizing" decision as being "flippant," making it seem that cost was not a factor. "We live in this town like everybody else", she said with a sigh.
Costs will come in between $61.2 and $66.3 million depending on Wildwood School Building Committee pick
Black sheep member of the 5-member School Committee Vira Douangmany Cage played her usual watchdog role, questioning the process as a violation of Open Meeting Law, since the agenda posted on the town website did not clearly show a vote would be taken.
Agenda posted on town website does not clearly indicate a vote would be taken
ASC Chair Katherine Appy responded that the agenda was clear on the school website and this was pretty much the way they always did things.
Last year, after a number of posting snafus that cancelled meetings at the last minute, the Regional School Committee voted to allow posting of meetings and agendas on the ARPS Regional website rather than relying on hard copy postings in all four towns. The state does allow this, but only for regional entities, which the Amherst School Committee is not.
Former Amherst School Committee member Andy Churchill spoke in favor of reconfiguration
Crocker Farm Principal Derek Shea spoke in favor of making his school preK-1st Grade
The Wildwood School Building Committee will discuss the School Committee decision tomorrow night as they have the final authority with the Massachusetts School Building Authority for a single project that will receive between 50 and 55% reimbursement from the state.
According to Assistant Superintendent Mike Morris (also chair of the Wildwood School Building Committee):
"There will be
discussion of the options at the SBC meeting tomorrow and a vote at the
2/2 SBC meeting on the Preferred Schematic Report (a submission to the
MSBA that includes this choice). As mentioned at last Wednesday's
meeting and community forum, another design option (W11) that is very
similar to W5 but made for the 750 student building will be presented,
so there are four potential building designs to consider (W11, W10, W7,
FR5)."
Forever activist Vince O'Connor predicts disaster for the Reconfiguration scenario
O'Connor's preferred choise is twice as expensive
Vince O'Connor, who championed the most expensive concept of using the MSBA to deal with Wildwood only and have the town go it alone renewing Fort River, exposed a conspiracy theory that town officials wish to close down Fort River so it could be used as the new Department of Public Works building, another mega-building-project on the immediate horizon.
O'Connor also predicted the MSBA will not even approve the Reconfiguration model since it does not have overwhelming public support. And even if it does make it to the floor of Town Meeting for a debt exclusion Override vote, it will fail like the elementary school Override did back in 1992.
With Amherst property tax rates already in the top ten statewide, the $200+ added to the average tax bill by a debt exclusion Override for another 30 years to finance this mega-school is going to be a very tough sell. School officials are putting all their eggs in this one expensive basket.
Indeed the die is now cast, the Rubicon has been crossed. Let's hope School Superintendent Maria Geryk fares a tad better than Julius Caesar.
Mike Morris and Maria Geryk listening to critical public comments
Kathleen Traphagen not happy with most recent Gazette story as well
DPW Chief Guilford Mooring brought the latest plans for the roundabout at Triangle and East Pleasant Street near the new Kendrick Place mixed use building to the Public Works Committee on Thursday night.
This would make the 9th time it has appeared on their agenda over the past two years.
Public Works Committee meeting (1/14/16)
PWC audience
Major tweaks include a new system of (5) crosswalks that avoid going through the center of the roundabout, removal of a small island over on the side closest to UMass so a "slip lane" can allow for PVTA buses and trucks to make the turn. It also allows for the sidewalk to be brought down from the current top of a steep hill to grade level.
Sidewalk on left will be brought down to street level (tree and island in center will go)
A half dozen citizens -- mostly neighbors -- showed up to voice their concerns, which seemed to center on pedestrian safety. Both Mooring and PWC Chair Christine Gray-Mullen pointed out that roundabouts are safer than signalized intersections.
Vince O'Connor was also concerned about the space provided in the roundabout for a car to stop for pedestrians and he would like it large enough to accommodate a PVTA bus. Mr. O'Connor was also concerned about dedicated bike lanes all the way through the roundabout.
Mooring pointed out that cyclists could simply act as regular vehicles in the roundabout or use "chicken lanes" i.e. the sidewalks.
The PWC recommended the crosswalk in front of Kendrick Place be moved about 20 feet into the middle of the slip lane, halfway between E. Pleasant and Triangle Street.
The PWC will vote their recommendation to the Select Board at their next meeting in February, and if all goes well construction could start in the upcoming construction season.
UMass Eastman Lane/N. Pleasant roundabout is considered a great success
The sun is setting on our current form of government
The race for Charter Commission illustrates perfectly the problem with Amherst Town Meeting: 20 candidates have thus far taken out nomination papers for the nine open seats, or 2.2 candidates per seat while Town Meeting has only 30 candidates for 80 open seats, or .375 candidates per seat.
So how's a voter to decide who to elect to this critically important body that will decide the fate of Amherst town government for the rest of the century?
Well first of all it should be easy to nix the ones who did not sign the charter petition that brought it to the March 29 ballot in the first place:
Out of the 20 potential Charter Commission candidates that would include Janet McGowan, Gerry Weiss, Meg Gage, Maurianne Adams, Jennifer McKenna, Robert Greeney, Diana Stein, Leslie Saulsberry, and Chris Riddle (Although an Amherst For All Steering Committee member confirms Mr. Riddle signed a sheet but may have been disqualified for being illegible or some other technical reason).
In other words, Town Meeting Loyalists need not apply. And the initial strategy to protect that inept antiquated form of government was to naively hope enough signatures would not be collected.
That of course did not pan out as Amherst For All collected the 3,215 signatures in a historically record breaking three months.
So the first two questions that should be asked of all the candidates who successfully hand in their nomination papers by February 9 with 50 signatures is did you sign the petition to bring about the Commission you are now running for, and do you support Amherst Town Meeting?
If they answer No & Yes you have your answer: Choose someone else.
AFD Engines 3 & 4, Rescue 1 on scene Amherst College Dakin House for training
Besides paying the town $120,000 for ambulance and fire protection services this past year, Amherst College also allows AFD to train at the abandoned Dakin House next to the College owned Amherst Golf Course.
Since the Student Call Force has a few new members and the UMass campus is pretty busy today with students moving in, AFD decided to use the Dakin House for hands on training: Pulling hose lines and practicing rescues (using full turn out gear/air tanks) inside the once ornate house.
Structure to left was off limits to training because it's in such bad shape
No, unfortunately they did not actually torch the two story house.
Although someday soon Amherst College will have to raze all the structures as they are increasingly becoming a safety hazard, even though our assessor still valuesthe propertyat $677,200.
In 2015 AFD had its busiest year ever with Amherst College accounting for 4% of their total calls.
Triangle of land is a "wetland resource area" (Connecticut River on left)
So this unfortunate incident of clear cutting trees without permission and then saying it was all a terrible misunderstanding reminds me of the regrettable incident at UMass a few years back when a contractor demolished the historic old Trolley Station thinking it was all approved.
Trolley Station on North Pleasant Street, built 1911 demolished 2012
Or the Thomas Becket affair when old King Henry asked a little too loudly, "Who will rid me of the meddlesome priest?" And some of his henchmen did so, thinking they were doing the King a favor.
Pretty much the first thing you see when entering Hadley coming off the Calvin Coolidge Bridge is this swath of property with nothing on it now but an abandoned gas station. And until recently the next thing you saw was the rotting remains of the Aqua Vitae restaurant.
It looked pretty lousy three months ago, and today with the clear cut trees scattered about horizontally, it still looks pretty lousy. Although removing the old Aqua Vitae building was a huge step in the right direction.
I'm told there were at least a half-dozen trees that were in good shape and did not deserve to die.
Hadley has a right to be pissed over Pride President Robert Bolduc ignoring a Conservation Commission order to leave the darn trees alone. Don't mess with a volunteer commission in a tight knit farm community like Hadley.
So assess a fine on Mr. Bolduc for a couple thousand per healthy tree whacked, make him replant a bunch more (some of them sizable) to replace the slaughtered ones, and allow the site to be cleaned up and construction of something nicer to commence.
Sandra Burgess (left) Vince O'Connor, Mary Wentworth (right) at 2/20/15 Hearing
Forever activists Vince O'Connor and Mary Wentworth used the Select Board Monday night Public Comment period to air their complaint about a challenge they filed with the Town Clerk last year concerning problematic signatures on Phoebe Hazzard's School Committee nomination papers.
Town Clerk Sandra Burgess ruled the complaint was filed a half hour after the deadline, and after two hearings the Board of Registrars agreed, thus dismissing the case.
But in researching deadlines for the Charter revision question which has now made the ballot the Town Clerk discovered she had erred and the deadline was not 48 hours after the Town Clerk's deadline for accepting nomination papers but a full two weeks later after the Board of Registrars had certified them.
Oops.
This was back in late September early October, soon after Town Manager John Musante suddenly passed away.
After informing Interim Town Manager Dave Ziomek and Select Board Chair Alisa Brewer and discovering there is no provision in state law that covers this, she informed Mr. O'Connor of her mistake. And Vince appeared to take it well.
Mary Wentworth & Vince O'Connor at the 1/11/16 Select Board meeting
But now, two months later, he appeared with Ms. Wentworth at the Select Board meeting to complain about it. Ms. Wentworth was a tad confused saying it was the State Ethics Division who had ruled there was a violation, but that is not the case.
The mistake was discovered by the person who made the mistake and she owned up to it. Now Mr. O'Connor and Ms. Wentworth want a public apology.
Considering what the School Committee will be deciding next week, Phoebe Hazzard probably wishes their challenge last year was successful.
School Committee will vote Jan 19 on new school project
Just like the teacher/staff comments I uploaded earlier today, these numerous comments from concerned parents/guardians provide a fascinating glimpse into the exceedingly hard -- and unpopular -- choice the Amherst School Committee is about to make.
Click to enlarge/read
Only two motions for Amherst School Committee to vote on at 1/19 meeting
Wildwood has plenty of space out back for a new building
Staff open ended comments on the Amherst Elementary School Building issue that came in via the recent survey (with a 50% response rate) give a telling snapshot look of this controversial issue.
I'm a little surprised school officials did not make it more widely available to the general public.
Outgoing Interim Town Manager Dave Ziomek (standing) outgoing Finance Director Sandy Pooler (seated)
Calling it "not my budget, but our budget," Interim Town Manager Dave Ziomek presented to the Select Board and Finance Committee a status quo FY17 budget with a modest 2.7% increase over last year that maintains services, doesn't use any reserves and doesn't require a Proposition 2.5 Override.
New growth of $750,000 via Kendrick Place, Amherst Office Park and Presidential Apartments was helpful on the revenues side, as was no increase in Health insurance costs for the 5th straight year, a feat Finance Committee Chair Kay Moran dubbed "remarkable."
But alas, this budget does not increase staffing to our beleaguered Public Safety departments. Although a police position is first in line should extra money materializes as the grant that funded the Neighborhood Liaison Officer runs out at the end of this fiscal year and may not be renewed.
Fire Department staffing will be "studied" this spring, but this being a "transitional year" Mr. Ziomek stated, "This was not a time to make substantial changes that would be felt for years to come." In 2015 AFD had it's busiest year in history.
New Fire Station to replace Central Station "A high priority for the town."
The DPW is also level funded although they will require a whopping $3 million bond authorization to complete phase 2 of the sewer addition to Amherst Woods.
Select Board gets a raise
The Select Board will be granted a pay raise from the current $300 up to $1,500 annually with the chair getting an addition $500. It will be interesting to see if the Select Board votes on that before the budget goes to Town Meeting.
In closing the Interim Town Manager said he was "Inspired every day by John (Musante). He would want good things to happen in Amherst. With him the glass was more than half-full, it was always three-quarters full."
Select Board member Andy Steinberg thanked Ziomek, who returns to his Assistant Town Manager role at the end of the month, saying he "did an amazing job. He stepped up when we needed him to do so, under extraordinary circumstances."
The main problem with our little college town is we are more than half-owned by tax exempt education institutes: Amherst College our #1 landowner, followed by UMass/Amherst the flagship of higher education in the state, and of course the "I-think-I-can, I-think-I-can" little college that could, Hampshire College.
And the town itself is in the top four tax-exempt landowners with its extensive conservation, recreation and APR property.
How profitable would an airline be if a little more than half their passengers were "non revenue" free flights from employees or their friends and family?
And it's only going to get worse. Much worse. Looming on the immediate horizon are four -- count 'em FOUR -- major building projects, that all told could approach $100 million in total costs.
Yes, one-tenth of a Billion.
Pretty safe bet at this point the School Committee will chose a Wildwood School plan that includes a combined mega-school to replace both Wildwood and Fort River, costing between $61 and $66 million.
Thus taxpayers will be faced with an Override vote for Amherst's 50% share of that this coming November.
The Jones Library recently chose an architect for their expansion/renovation that could cost upwards of $40 million, with Amherst taxpayeers covering half that.
And it's beginning to look like the new Fire Station and DPW building -- with no state reimbursements -- will not come in at the "placeholder" price of $20 million each Finance Director Sandy Pooler postulated a year ago.
In other words before you go spending the money saved by low gas/oil prices, think about what your property tax bill is going to look like starting a very few years from now, let alone the outrageous amount it is already.
Click to enlarge/read
Numbers for four major construction projects given to Joint Capital Planning Committee March, 2015 (note how far off School and Library projects were)
Dan McMurrer (an Amherst resident) from McBassi & Co presenting survey results
UPDATE: Thursday morning Scroll to bottom of post for all Powerpoint slides presented last night
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The somewhat rushed survey of parents/guardians and teacher/staff approved at a cost of $2,500 in late December by the Amherst School Committee was presented to a joint meeting of the School Committee and Wildwood Building Committee early this evening.
In fact the meeting personnel in the front of the room outnumbered spectators in attendance, although there is a Community Public Forum later this evening to discuss design options, costs and timeline for the expensive project.
4:00 PM meeting was sparsely attended
The results of the two surveys show strong support for option B, the mega-school with two separate but equal wings -- aka two schools in one, with cost estimates that range from $57 to $66 million. Although the results were a lot stronger with teachers/staff than with parents/guardians.
In fact, if you factor in the margin of error Option A & B were essentially tied in the parents/guardian survey.
Since Option B is two schools in one -- Wildwood and Fort River -- Amherst would then have only two elementary schools, the new mega school and Crocker Farm.
Click to enlarge/read
Teacher/staff chose "Healthy work & learning environment" as #1 reason and #2 was "Impact on student learning." While the parent/guardians also chose those as their top two reasons, only in reverse order.
Option A is simply to rebuild Wildwood, either new or renovate, and maintain three elementary schools, with hopefully Fort River getting renovated at a future date. Cost ranges for those options range from $34 to $38 million.
The Mass School Building Authority will cover about half, possibly 55%, the total project cost.
Much better crowd for the 6:30 Community Forum
The Amherst School Committee will make their BIG final decision on January 19th.
The District Attorney's office has identified the deceased as Amherst resident Adam Gamble, age 32. The case remains under investigation. Gamble has a previous arrest record with APD.
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The District Attorney's office has confirmed Amherst Police, AFD and the Massachusetts State Police attached to the DA's office responded to Bertucci's yesterday for an unattended death.
According to DA spokesperson Mary Carey, "The death appears non-suspicious, and non-criminal in nature and the investigation is ongoing."
I asked if a drug overdose would still qualify as "non-suspicious and non-criminal in nature," and she said "yes."
The Amherst Town Clerk recorded 217 total deaths in 2015 and so far this year, 9 (not counting this most recent one).
I usually hate those puff piece Internet listicles placing Amherst in the top ten for this that or the other, oftentimes made up category. But BusinessWest is a different story altogether. A legitimate insider bible of the industry, and their industry is of course "business."
